Citation

Savelsberg JJ, King RD. Am. J. Sociol. 2005; 111(2): 579-616.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/432779

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The institutionalization of distinct collective memories of hate and cultural traumas as law and bureaucracy is examined comparatively for the case of hate crime law. A dehistoricized focus on individual victimization and an avoidance of major episodes of domestic atrocities in the United States contrast with a focus on the Holocaust, typically in the context of the destruction of the democratic state, in Germany. Such differences, in combination with specifics of state organization and exposure to global scripts, help explain particularities of law and law enforcement along dimensions such as internationalization, coupling of minority and democracy protection, focus on individual versus group rights, and specialization of control agencies.